This lecture was different. There was no speaker talking to a quiet audience for an hour and, afterward, 30 minutes of questions from the audience.
This time, the Life-long Learning Lecture was a dialogue between the lecturers and the audience – an exchange of thoughts, memories and experiences. It was a journey.
“Siddhartha’s Journey of Discovery” was the title of Thursday’s talk at Fort Lewis College by Peter Bartol and Ross Park, former executives with financial and technical backgrounds. Siddhartha – the famous novel published in 1922 by author, artist and poet Hermann Hesse, who was born in Germany – is the story of the Siddhartha’s journey.
The name “Siddhartha” is made up of two words that mean “achieved” and “what was reached for.” The novel’s protagonist travels and stops at different places, including a rich village and a river. During this, Siddhartha discovers himself spiritually.
Park read the book for the first time in the 1950s. Fifty years later, he re-read it.
“It was quite a different book,” he said.
Park and Bartol talked about the novel, delivered some background and read some passages aloud. Along the way, they stopped four times and questioned the audience.
First, they asked audience members about important experiences in their lives. The answers included “the deepening of the horizon,” “mind-blowing experiences” and just “having no plan.”
The questions became more personal – the answers as well. Bartol and Park asked about important life changes, the experience of letting go and feelings of connectedness with others surrounding them. The answers were personal, deep and emotional – about sadness, grieving and hope.
“Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom can’t,” Park said at the lecture’s end. “Wisdom comes from experiences, not from teaching.”
Bartol and Park encouraged people to read or re-read Siddhartha. Bartol compared Hesse’s novel to a catalyst that initiates a reaction – in this case, a spiritual one.
Thomas Feiler is a student at the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany, and an intern at The Durango Herald.
